Panhandle (Texas); PUMA (Public Use Microdata Area)

[Baker, John]

        Here's a couple of court cases to take the term back to 1880;
it's clearly older than that, since it was already being used as an
established geographic term in appellate court opinions.  There was also
a Panhandle National Bank, but I think it may not have been established
until 1884 or so.

        "Four parties, appellant being one of them, were found near Fort
Elliott, in the Panhandle, in possession of the stolen animals."  McKeen
v. State, 7 Tex. App. 631 (Tex. Ct. App. 1880).

        "That plaintiffs are citizens of Kansas, as alleged in their
petition, and in 1880, January 1st, they had their headquarters of a
ranch of about ten thousand head of cattle on the neutral strip, Indian
Territory, some ten miles north of the Texas Pan Handle."  Hardesty
Bros. v. Fleming, 57 Tex. 395 (1882).

        Note that the latter opinion uses "Pan Handle" for the Texas
Panhandle, but not for the corresponding panhandle of the Indian
Territory (now Oklahoma).


John Baker



-----Original Message-----
From: American Dialect Society [mailto:ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU] On Behalf
Of bapopik at AOL.COM
Sent: Tuesday, August 29, 2006 9:29 AM
To: ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU
Subject: Panhandle (Texas); PUMA (Public Use Microdata Area)

Does OED or anyone else have any better than this (1888?) for (Texas)
"panhandle"? Does OED have PUMA (Public Interest Microdata Area) and
PUMS (Public Interest Microdata Sample)?
--Barry Popik,
who killed Stephen Vincent Benet (in a high school reading).

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